Sbir and Sttr Extension Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today also in support of S. 4900, the SBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022. This bipartisan legislation is both timely and necessary to ensure that our Nation remains on the forefront of innovation, research, and development of the products and technology of our future.

As an entrepreneur myself by trade, and with experience scaling several businesses in Pennsylvania, I know personally just how important that seed funding can be to a business' success and to the potential to get its products to the shelves.

The Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer Programs, otherwise known as America's seed fund, offer competitive Federal awards to small firms in order to tackle the 21st century problems and needs. Simply put, funds from these programs move innovative technologies from concept to marketplace, or from the lab to our government programs and systems.

Despite the overwhelming success of these programs, there is one major problem that we have in Congress that we all must address, and that is we are standing here today. The SBIR and STTR programs are set to expire in just 2 short days unless we come together and pass this bill and send it to the President's desk.

The consequences of a program lapse would be so devastating on many, many fronts. For instance, the Department of Defense has shared that failure to reauthorize this program will result in approximately 1,200 warfighting needs not being addressed; not to mention that these programs are remarkable taxpayer investments, returning $22 to the economy for every $1 spent on projects at the DOD.

I have been proud to work with my colleagues across the Small Business and the Armed Service Committees to lead this effort to extend the authorization of these critical programs. Indeed, in June, I successfully offered a bipartisan amendment to prevent a harmful program lapse in our annual defense bill. As the defense bill is, unfortunately, still pending in the Senate, I thank Senators Cardin and Ernst for their sponsorship of this important legislation, which will reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs for an additional 3 years.

Furthermore, this legislation adds measures aimed at commercializing projects and expanding Federal research security to protect against technology theft.

I thank the leadership for their support. Time is of the essence, and I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

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